Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/21

 14 countered on the road, and in the other hand he carried the old felt shoes he had taken to cover. As he walked along he conversed in cheerful tones with himself.

"I feel quite warm enough," he said, "without the fur overcoat. That glass of vodki which I drank sends the blood like fire coursing through my veins, and it is not necessary to fasten my sheepskin coat. I am returning home after having banished all my sorrow. See what kind of a man I am! What matters anything tome now? I can live without a coat. What care I if I have to do without a coat for all eternity? Only one thing worries me, and that is my poor wife. She will be dreadfully grieved. Yes, it is very annoying. You work for a man and he refuses to pay you. Very well; if he does not soon bring me the money I will take his hat. I call upon God to be my witness that I will do so. How strange it all seems! He pays me only twenty kopecks at a time. Well, what can I do witht wenty kopecks? It is only